Hi all, I have a Asus Tuf Gaming B550 Plus mobo and for over 2 years never released that I have been running 2020 and now 2024 on my second 1TB NVMe F: drive thats on a speed of 3.0. The main 1TB C drive is on the 4.0 slot along with Windows and my other games. Have my F drive only for the Flight sim. Well I purchased the other day a 2TB NVMe to clone my F drive for space for my flightsim. Well shoot.....now I wish I had my FS on my C drive which reads and writes faster. Question is will I even really notice much of a difference from 3.0 to 4.0 for flight sim?

1. Should I return the 2TB drive and get a 4TB drive then clonse my C drive and replace it with the new 4TB and move my sim to the C drive?

2. or wont see much of a difference and just close my F drive to the 2TB space and keep using the sims on the 3.0 NVMe speed?

dont know what to do at the moment.

My specs are bellow

1 hour ago, Bill A said:

Hi all, I have a Asus Tuf Gaming B550 Plus mobo and for over 2 years never released that I have been running 2020 and now 2024 on my second 1TB NVMe F: drive thats on a speed of 3.0. The main 1TB C drive is on the 4.0 slot along with Windows and my other games. Have my F drive only for the Flight sim. Well I purchased the other day a 2TB NVMe to clone my F drive for space for my flightsim. Well shoot.....now I wish I had my FS on my C drive which reads and writes faster. Question is will I even really notice much of a difference from 3.0 to 4.0 for flight sim?

1. Should I return the 2TB drive and get a 4TB drive then clonse my C drive and replace it with the new 4TB and move my sim to the C drive?

2. or wont see much of a difference and just close my F drive to the 2TB space and keep using the sims on the 3.0 NVMe speed?

dont know what to do at the moment.

My specs are bellow

Keep the 2TB Gen 3 drive and move forward with that. You’re already getting a big capacity upgrade, and flight sim won’t be bottlenecked by PCIe 3 speeds.

If you ever rebuild your system or upgrade your boot drive down the line, then you can look at a high speed 4TB Gen 4 SSD for everything.

 

 

There differences won't be much different comparing NVME 3.0 to 4.0, however, if you are moving to 5.0, then you MAY see some better loading times.

Also, keep in mind that you have to get top of the line NVME drives to go to the top speed rather than the lower end NVMEs.   I am referring to SAMSUNG EVO or PRO or WD Black or similar,  Just look for the highest transfer speed for that drive size.  

4TB drives are still expensive, i personally would stick with 2TB, i have majority of  my system drives in NVMEs, and I am happy with my setup.  For games, I have a WD Black 850X (MSFS), SN770 for C:\ i would consider Samsung PRO or similar performing line if the price is right.  I also have an ADATA SX8200 for other games

Thanks for the reply. The 2TB NVMe is a GSRF Samsung EVO 990 gen 4/5

Guess I'll clone the 1TB and place in the 3.0 spot that the 1TB is currently in

Thanks

Hi guys, did the clone and installed the drive, still shows up as the F drive so thats good , but when I launch FS2020 its not locating it. All the other apps that auto launch with MSFS via addon linker start just fine

 

"Microsoft Flight Simulator can’t open because it is offline. The storage device might be missing or disconnected."

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by Bill A